Chief Joseph –“ I Will Fight No More Forever”

This is a surrender speech made by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce since they were being captured and defeated by Colonel Nelson A. Miles (Joseph). He says how other chiefs have been killed and that he is tired of and done with fighting. "Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead" (Joseph). Other people are freezing and starving to death. Some are even running away. Chief Joseph no longer wants to fight and just wants everything to be over (Joseph). He makes the speech short, sweet and right to the point. At first, I actually thought that maybe the speech was longer and that the website had just part of it, but as I went onto other websites I realized that it was actually that short. I think this brings out the point more than having a really long speech. People would probably start falling asleep if he were to go into a whole lot of detail.
This falls under Thoreau's belief in Civil Disobedience because Chief Joseph is doing what he thinks is right. He no longer cares if he wins this fight or not he just wants everything to be over so things can be like they used to be- or at least better than what they are the time of when he made this speech (Joseph). Also, he is doing the non-violent way because he is quitting the fighting. Non violence is another part of Thoreau's belief-civil disobedience ("Henry..."). Chief Joseph didn't care what others thought when he made this speech. He didn't care if it looked like he was giving up. Thoreau didn't care what others thought even if there was peer pressure from both the Nez Perce and the people who were attacking the Nez Perce("Henry..."). Emerson does talk about freedom and Chief Joseph obviously wants to be free, so Emerson also ties into this speech through the belief of freedom("Ralph...").


Joseph, Chief. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Web. 21 Feb. 2012. http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/fight_.pdf>.


"Henry David Thoreau." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Web. 29 Feb. 2012. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thoreau/.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Web. 29 Feb. 2012. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/.